Utah, world renown for issuing concealed-gun permits, without requiring people to set foot in the state or actually hit a target, has triggered a parallel boom in long-distance gun safety instructors.

The problem is that the state Bureau of Criminal Identification can't afford to regulate out of state instructors. Fly a BCI agent into Nashville or even Kalispell to sit in on a class? Not in this economy.

Consequently, the 1 percent of instructors who lost their certification to teach Utah's concealed-carry course had it jerked for legal issues, mostly because they were slapped with protective orders. Only one, an out-of-state instructor, ran into trouble with BCI because of how he was teaching the course (he was doing it via the Internet).

Maybe, just for fun, out-of-state permit applicants should be required to locate Utah on a map.